Meaning

1 senses

  1. To portray with a false or misleading image of environmental friendliness so as to conceal or obscure damaging activities.

Examples

2 sentences

  1. That's nothing more than greenwashing.

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  2. By labeling their product as all-natural, the company is just trying to greenwash their wasteful production practices.

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Origin

Blend of green (“environmentally friendly”) + whitewash (or green + -wash), coined by Jay

Blend of green (“environmentally friendly”) + whitewash (or green + -wash), coined by Jay Westerveld in 1986.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

greenwashes, greenwashing, greenwashed, greenwashed
Base formgreenwash · to greenwash
3rd person singulargreenwashes
Present participlegreenwashing
Past simplegreenwashed
Past participlegreenwashed

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theygreenwash
he, she, itgreenwashes

Past simpleLesson

all personsgreenwashed

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave greenwashed
he, she, ithas greenwashed

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill greenwash

Word family

3 related words
Relatedgreen tape
Derivedgreenwasheropenwash

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
greenhouseB1greeninggreenishgreetA1greetingB1
greenwash — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto